Published 12:00 am, Saturday, March 24, 2012

RICHMOND, Va. -- The sword Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee had at his side when he surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant is returning to Appomattox as the centerpiece of a new museum examining the post-Civil War struggle to heal the nation.

The uniform Lee wore that day in 1865 will also be on display March 31 when the Museum of the Confederacy opens an 11,700-square-foot museum within a mile of where the war effectively ended.

The Appomattox museum is the first in a regional system planned by the Museum of the Confederacy to make its vast collection of Confederate artifacts and manuscripts more accessible.

Only about 10 percent of its holdings are on display at any one time at the Richmond museum, located next to the former Confederate White House.